Meet the Cake Boss

Carlo Guastaffero was a second-generation bread baker from Sicily who encouraged his son to become a cake maker in order to avoid working long overnight hours.

Bartolo Valastro Sr. did learn to make cakes and passed that passion along to his son, Bartolo “Buddy” Valastro Jr. But Buddy Valastro has no intention of keeping short hours — at the moment, he helps run his family’s famous New Jersey bakery, Carlo’s, and stars in two TLC reality shows, “Cake Boss” and “Next Great Baker.” The fifth season of “Cake Boss” wrapped up this summer and the second season of “Next Great Baker” premieres in November.

“Right now I’m filming for the new season of ‘Next Great Baker,’ ” Valastro said in a telephone interview last week. “ ‘Cake Boss’ is done for this year [but] we come back full-force in January. I film all the time. Usually during my off time I love doing this tour.”

The tour of which he speaks is “Buddy Valastro Live! Homemade for the Holidays,” which will be making a three-week trip around the East Coast and the Chicago area later this year. On Dec. 9, the show will stop at the Salem Civic Center.

Valastro, 35, said his favorite part of doing the live show is pulling audience members up on stage to participate. But fans in Southwest Virginia will be able to get in on the action a bit early by taking part in The Roanoke Times autumn cupcake decorating contest.

The best-looking cupcake will be selected by Valastro, and the winner will get a pair of tickets to the show and a meet-and-greet with the Cake Boss himself.

He’ll work on stage

Buddy Valastro didn’t earn a reality TV show dedicated to his life by making simple cakes.

For his son Carlo’s first birthday, he made a huge mountain-shaped Candy Land cake with a chocolate waterfall. For a special event, a nearby church got a three-tier confection covered in “stained glass” images made of icing. And for the 125th birthday of the Statue of Liberty, Valastro and his team created a detailed, scaled-down version of the statue that was carted to Liberty Island in pieces and assembled there.

When making such complicated cakes, a significant amount of effort goes into engineering the framework that will support various elements of the design. Valastro is also known for unique details such as the light-up sugar pearl on a Chinese New Year cake or the Las Vegas Bar Mitzvah cake that featured a real slot machine that spit out a jackpot.

The audience at Valastro’s Salem show will get to watch as the Cake Boss decorates cakes on the stage. He promises it will be even more exciting than it sounds.

“When people read that the Cake Boss is coming and he is doing a theater show, they are probably like ‘What the hell is he going to do on stage for that long?’ ” Valastro said. “But after the show people feel like they got more than they expected.”

The show, which is set to music, will include the tale of how he became the Cake Boss. He will then demonstrate cake-decorating techniques including the use of fondant, which was the most popular part of his previous live shows.

Valastro said after he decorates multiple cakes in front of the audience, he will call folks to the stage to play games with a chance to win one of the cakes.

“I don’t want to give away the whole show, but it’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said. “I have four kids under the age of 10, so I want to do a show where you can bring your 4-year-old or your 14-year-old and have a good, clean, fun time and laugh.”

Tickets cost $35.75, $45.75 and $85.

If you would love to attend but would not love to pay the price, then it’s time to dust off the cupcake tins and the frosting tips and create an autumn cupcake that will blow Buddy away.

On the blog

Get the recipe for Miller & Rhoads Chocolate Silk Pie on the blog at blogs.roanoke.com/fridgemagnet.

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